The GnATTERbox

For discussion of the issues faced when building a model or layout - how to replicate wood, what glues to use, exactly how much weathering can a Gnat take, a good source of detailing accessories - you get the picture, I'm sure.

I know estate railways are a fashionable around here at the moment and here's another one

I started planning this a few years ago when I saw a photo of the shed at Duffield Bank and the multi level aspect appealed so I've been picking up bits and pieces towards this. The big impetus was the acquisition of a ready made set of baseboards - I built these a few years ago as end boards for a 00-gauge layout but they have now been replaced with laser cut ones so I took the old ones back. The photo below shows the boards as built and they make a circle around 6'6" in diameter.

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The plan is to make 1 board "inspired by" the shed at Duffield Bank and make the other boards some nice scenery and a small fiddle yard. I'll mostly be making things up as I go along.

The name "Crundells Estate" is, as usual for me, a discworld reference. Crundells is the country estate of the Ramkin family and it is described as "a large rambling stately home profusely ornamented with statuary of naked women" so some of those may appear at some point.

I actually started this a few weeks ago so the initial progress might seem fast.

I built up the levels for the shed board using plywood, topped with cork and laid track. The point motors have been fitted and the wiring droppers installed. Track is Peco 0-16.5 with a couple of Code 83 inspection pits used for inside the shed. A second board has a long curve running back down to "ground" level.

The track has had a quick weathering with a mix of grey, red and black spray paint and the sleepers brush painted brown. The white card sections are where retaining wall will be.

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I've not yet decided what will be on the other two boards as yet or even what will be on the "long curve" board scenically.

Managed some progress. I've built up some of the hills and banks using polystyrene cut with a hot wire, newspaper and PVA glue. It's then had a quick coat of brown emulsion to see how it looks.

I've also started mocking the buildings up from foam board - good thing I did as the shed height, to scale, was a little too low to get the loco in so I had to add about 15mm to it. Hoping to get some mounting board this week and start constructing the building properly.

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My first completed "estate" loco can also be seen, this is a Smallbrook Harlequin built pretty much as per the instructions.

Slow progress but progress none the less. The mock up buildings have been replaced by their actual counterparts. The shed is artist mounting board with slaters embossed plasticard either side while the big building is mounting board and plasticard with a wooden supporting frame of 8mm stripwood.

I've started building up the concrete level inside the shed and once this is done I can start ballasting and scenics.

Due to family visiting, Crundells was stored away for a few weeks but I've dug it out again and made some progress. The buildings have had their main colours painted and the start of weathering applied. I've been experimenting with Vallejo Air paints with the airbrush and it looks pretty good.

Most of the ballasting has now been done - I need to sort out the ground level at the front before finishing the front two tracks.

Interests: Building and running exhibition layouts now in Gn15, previously in 009 scale narrow gauge for 34 years. I like steam locos and like to achieve a degree of realism. I am also interested in motor buses from 1945 to 1969.

Progress is continuing but much more slowly than I'd like. The "shed" board now has all of the buildings in place and the basic scenery done. I still need to sort the roofs, fit the doors and do some detailing.

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I've also made a start on the next board by carrying the levels across from the shed board. I now need to decide what is going on this board - my current thought is just a rising hillside with, maybe, a folly on it.

More progress. The next board (to the right of the shed board) is going through a brown phase. Hillside built up from polystyrene sheet covered in newspaper and PVA then painted brown. Still not completely happy with the contours, especially in the cutting, but getting there.

That’s looking good. I’ve made landscape with polystyrene (the cheap white bead kind) and I didn’t glue newspaper on it. I shaped it by picking bits of foam away to give a roughish surface, which looked sufficiently like ‘dirt’ when painted.

Thanks Peter, I've tried doing scenery with just polystyrene in the past and it works fine for a static layout but bits tend to break away in transport and you end up with a white patch. Covering it in newspaper gives a hard shell that resists damage a little although the edges of the newspaper pieces do sometimes show as can be seen. Most of it will end up covered in static grass eventually.

I got my polystyrene from the local wickes DIY shop in a 8' x 4' x 1" sheet and cut it with a hot wire cutter.